Things to know before creating any Australia Itinerary
Here are some practical pointers to make your travel in Australia more efficient and as productive as possible, as there are many things to know about travelling to Australia.
There will be a lot of travel involved.
It is best to plan your trip, keeping in mind the amount of travelling required between destinations. A sudden change to your itinerary might take out a massive chunk of the time you could have used to do something fun. So plan well, and choose from some gorgeous and varied Australia attractions that best suit your needs. Remember less is more when it comes to your trip.
The right transportation and accommodation will have an impact.
Keeping in mind the amount of travel involved and the places you will be visiting will help you have your arrangements and bookings made in advance. You could make a booking in a hotel or even choose to stay in private accommodation depending on your destination. It will benefit you to read more about the different types of accommodations, and the best ways of travelling around that will fit right into your budget.
How to create the perfect Australia Itinerary to match the time of the year
Australia is a vast continent, almost twice the size of Europe, spanning thousands of kilometres and crossing over many different time zones. To create a perfect Australia itinerary takes into consideration also the weather and climate zone. Everyone wants to have a great experience, and the only way that makes it possible is to plan your trip the right way.
Before crafting an itinerary in Australia, check the best time of year to travel around Australia.
To help you find your way and gather ideas, here are my suggestions for you:
- If you have anything from 1-2 weeks between October and December and March and May, visit Melbourne, Sydney and surrounding areas. Or travel to the Great Ocean Road, Adelaide in South Australia and Perth in Western Australia.
- If you have 1 to 2 weeks between January and March, then visit Tasmania and the South-Eastern Australia regions.
- Have 2 to 3 weeks between April and June, Queensland, Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef, Darwin and Kakadu National Park.
- By 2 to 3 weeks between June-September, the perfect itinerary is all northern regions of Australia from Cairns to Darwin to North-Western Australia, including Broome, the Kimberley region.
- If you have 3 to 4 weeks in March-May or Oct-December try to create a trip itinerary that includes all of the Southeast and Southwest Australia. May is a good month for the northern tropical regions to include a trip to Cairns or Darwin.
How to choose the right trip itinerary in Australia
Everyone has different things that they hope they will get out of their trip to Australia. Below are a few things that you need to understand based on your travel time frame and what you see yourself doing during your trip especially if you are asking yourself where to go the first time in Australia.
Here are my ideas for a sample itinerary for Australia, going from one week to four weeks. You can tweak the basic ideas and create your itinerary out of them.
You can also use this step-by-step trip guide to plan a trip to Australia.
Australia Itinerary 1 Week
If you plan a short trip to Australia, you will need to research the destinations you want to visit. If you underestimate the travel distances in Australia, you will soon feel emotionally and financially spent. Since this is a short trip, it is best not to cram too much into it or else you will leave without having experienced any places in their entirety.
I would ideally pick the main city and then add some day-trips from there. Alternatively, if you are more for an outdoorsy person, you can go hiking for one week in a specific destination. If you love diving and snorkelling, it can be a great idea to focus on a snorkelling boat trip in North Tropical Queensland.
10 Days Australia Itinerary
If you wonder if 10 days in Australia is enough, I inevitably say no, it’s not. With ten days, you will have to be very specific about where you want to visit in Australia. The most efficient way to maximise your time here is to plan your routes and travel for your trip.
You could plan Melbourne as the central hub and then take road trips from Melbourne. Melbourne is a beautiful place with streets that are very easy to navigate.
You will be sure to find a lot of fantastic shopping and dining experiences there. From Melbourne, you can quickly fly into Tasmania that also has stunning landscapes, excellent food and wine industry, and a lot of historical significance for Australia.
Doing your research well and allotting the right amount of time to be spent at each place will do the trick for you. Travelling by car is the ideal way to get around Australia. But you can also choose to travel around Australia by train, which is an excellent way of discovering the unique Australian landmarks.
Australia itinerary 3 weeks
When planning a more extended trip to Australia, a way to bring a sense of balance to your journey is to divide the trip into different parts.
If you plan on taking a flight from Sydney to Alice Springs, the start of your trip could be used to explore the city of Sydney and all it has to offer. Its iconic beaches, excellent restaurants, shopping centres are just some of the delights it holds. The second week could be ideal or taking a road to the South East Coast, which will allow you to explore everything you want at a leisurely pace.
Week three could involve exploring the Red Centre, the interior desert region present in Alice Springs. This will make your trip feel more dynamic and will give you a taste of the many flavours of Australia.
Classic Itinerary for Four Weeks in Australia
If you are lucky to have four weeks vacation, I cannot stop emphasising how important it is to allocate at least 4 weeks for your travel to Australia, for a first-time visit. So what can you do with four weeks in Australia?
With four weeks, you have time to take in the country and also allow you to plan in more areas. So, for instance, you would have time to go from Sydney to Melbourne, maybe on a 3-4 road trip along the East Coast of Australia.
If you love driving, then you can continue along the Great Ocean Road to reach Adelaide and from there fly to Alice Springs for your next road trip adventure to the Red Centre.
Finally, you can complete your round trip by flying back into the East Coast of Australia and visit Cairns and the Daintree Forest if the Great Barrier Reef is on your bucket list.
Four Weeks Itinerary on the West Coast Australia
Another great idea for the 4-week trip itinerary is to go from focussing your trip on the West Coast of Australia and start in Perth with a few days touring the region.
From there you can either go up the north coast of Perth, stop at the Pinnacles, and continue to Geraldton, to reach Shark Bay, with Monkey Mia via the Kalbarri National Park, and further north to Coral Bay and Exmouth.
Fly from Exmouth to Broome and visit the pearl of North-Western Australia and set off on exploring the Kimberley on a 4WD adventure to get to Kununurra and further north to Darwin.
You will be amazed at all things that the Kimberley region has to offer; I would plan at least ten days from Broome to Darwin.
Relax and chill out in the Top End of Australia, go to the Kakadu National Park for a camping safari and enjoy Darwin with its laid-back tropical flair.
Itinerary Ideas for Australia Road Trips
An excellent way for you to experience Australia is through a road trip. Although it will require you to take things at a slower pace, the joy that you will get through exploration will be worth it. There are some fantastic places that you can visit on your road trip, whether you are a solo traveller or a couple embarking on a road trip.
One of the most beautiful places you can visit in Australia includes the Great Ocean Road Trip, an iconic destination. From bushlands to the rainforest, from sandy surf beaches to rugged ochre cliffs it offers many opportunities to see native Australian wildlife and learn about this Australian coastal drive heritage.
Another excellent destination for a great road trip from Melbourne is Wilson Promontory National Park. It is an attractive region if you love walking and hiking in nature.
A road trip that everyone travelling in Australia must-have is the Uluru Road Trip. It is the most comfortable road trip in terms of travel distance, and you can also see the real Australian Outback.
An amazing road trip for food and wine lovers is to drive to Margaret River from Perth. The region has a Mediterranean climate, outstanding local produce, and excellent wines.
On this page, you can take a look at all Australian Road Trips that you can easily plan into your itinerary when travelling solo or with friends or family.
Feeling overwhelmed by choosing the right Itinerary?
I know it sounds overwhelming at first, and it takes time to create an itinerary for Australia that works well while balancing time frame with destinations and budget.
The first time I travelled to Australia in 2004, I worked nearly six months on my 8-weeks solo itinerary trip around the country. Now, you don’t need to spend six months, nor six weeks. Can you imagine being able to create your complete trip within a few days, instead?
It may sound impossible at first, but once you get Your Australia Itinerary Guide Book, you will have all answers by the hand, with precise information and tools to point you in the right direction.
A guidebook for the perfect Australia Itinerary
This guide book is a great tool for all first-time travellers to Australia. No matter what you want to do in Australia. It is a comprehensive guide that will equip you with all the essential information and the necessary tools to make a memorable trip. It is packed with rock-solid advice I gathered from +15 years of travels, i.e. over 100 thousand kilometres of adventures.
The book is the outcome of my first-hand experience, with no frills. Only practical information and advice to help you create your itinerary in Australia in 3 or fewer days.
Not only will Your Australia Itinerary save you so much of time and research, but it will make planning your Australia Itinerary that much easier. This detailed step by step information, checklists, and the multitude of resources will help you to travel to Australia with confidence.
The help you get with Your Australia Itinerary Guide Book
In this book, you will find my expert tips on how much time to allocate to each destination, how to wisely choose places to visit and the best ways of getting around Australia. The complete route comes with an itinerary outline, a checklist, a few interactive itinerary maps, customisation ideas to extend or reduce the length of your trip and adjust it to your interests and needs. Moreover, a full set of travel resources are added to each itinerary to make travel arrangements, such as accommodation, flights, tours faster and stressfree.
Need more help? Hire me to create your complete Australia Itinerary
Another thing you can do to get the most out of your Australia trip is to get trusted travel planning advice.
This will ensure that you don’t end up wasting your time and spending a fortune in the process. With this service, you will accelerate the whole process, creating together with you the itinerary and drawing up individual guides out of your itinerary. Also, I can take off you the tiring research for flights and accommodation. With my experienced help, your trip to Australia could hit all the sweet spots on your checklist.
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First published in Nov 2019, last updated in Jan 2021
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